Sensitivity. Its role in the human Collective & learning how to live with it

Eivind Speaks column

This blog post is taken from the Reclaim your Inner Throne Tribe group on Facebook. If you want weekly access to content such as this, join the group now.

Over the last two weeks, I explored the Warrior archetype as it relates to money, business and purpose.

It stirred up a lot of interest and debate, so clearly it is a hot and contentious topic here.

My conclusion after that discussion is that the majority of you understands that the Warrior archetype is essential to the psyche, and that we cannot live well or stand for what is good without it.

I feel confident that many of you get the underlying teaching, as offered originally by Moore & Gillette, that any archetype I don’t actively nurture a relationship with rules me from shadow by default.

Now, as we start to embody the Warrior more, what can happen for some folks is that they swing across to the other side of the chasm of fragmentation, repressing their sensitivity as they try on a faux Warrior to reclaim their power.

And so today, I want to return the focus back to sensitivity and its role in individuals and culture.

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I am currently reading Dr. Elaine Aron’s book “The Highly Sensitive Person” (HSP). It’s been sitting on my bookshelf for a while, with the underlying assumption that I’m one of these people myself.

So far, that theory holds. For all of my life, I have been picking up on things in my environment that other people just didn’t seem aware of. And just as Dr. Aron theorizes, that made me feel different and alone.

It’s been easy for me to get overwhelmed, and I am quite vulnerable to sensory pollution, especially too much hustle & bustle.

I have been further refining my theories on the role of such sensitivity in the 20% of the population who possess it (according to Dr. Aron that percentage holds true in the animal realm as well) after my 5 years of chronic fatigue from 2012 to 2017.

My chronic fatigue, instigated by a case of mononucleosis during the 2012 summer months, eventually served as a process of initiation for me, out of which one paradigm collapsed and another (the one which birthed Reclaim your Inner Throne) arose.

It was a life transition that *forced me* to honor my sensitivity more, and rather than become weaker, my power in the world started growing dramatically from that experience.

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I’m as convinced now as I ever have been that this 20% HSP minority of the population holds an important evolutionary role for the greater human collective.

Not only do sensitive people tend to function as canaries in the mine, falling ill from pollutants of every kind sooner than a “normal” person would; the sensitive folks, as a matter of necessity, must learn to regulate their nervous systems, calibrate to environments and deal with health challenges in ways less sensitive folks don’t.

As the biosphere and human collective is subjected to an increasing amount of environmental pollutants – be they chemical, emotional, sensory – the competencies of such sensitive folks is increasingly in demand.

In this way HSPs serve a similar role as the Shamanic caste did in tribes of old: Privy to environmental and psychological information that is hidden to others, such people become guides through the in-between spaces that arise as one paradigm collapses and another emerges into form.

We are currently in such a transition.

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I have been exploring more lately how the Magician and Lover are the archetypes of Chaos and the Warrior and King are the archetypes of Order*.

From empirical studies of and conversations with this community – and with the self-development world in general – I see that people who pursue transformation of their inner realms typically exhibit a greater level of familiarity with the world of Chaos than with that of Order.

In other words, this community is composed of mainly Lover and Magician-identified people. (in my research in the Ultimate Intro to Masculine Archetypes group of men, 90% of them identified as such)

Now, your challenge, were you to be a Magician-identified man, is to find a way to fully belong in the world. You are on the outside by default, observing dynamics and phenomena. Your life is one of introversion, often solitude and loneliness. You are likely highly sensitive, attuned to subtle realms and the forces of life and nature, but you run the risk of “never leaving the Underworld”, which is a different way of saying you refuse to leave Mama’s womb to become a truly sovereign man.

Similarly, were you to be a Lover-identified man, you are likely sensitive to conflict, highly empathetic, and must learn to stand your ground, to have clear boundaries, to stop fake-smiling in order to be liked, to own your killer and your animal sexuality, in order to give your gifts to the world. You too are prone to stay close to the realm of Mother.

And you will need the archetypes of Order – the leadership, blessing and vision of the King and the resilience, courage, power and service of the Warrior – to proceed in life. Your gifts will remain ungiven if you don’t.

But you sensitive people have things to offer as well, and you can offer them right now, and it is important for you to understand that.

For until you do, you are either lashing out against the people who embody those qualities that you yourself need, or you are downplaying your gifts and going into hiding.

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The psyche is a complex place.

When you are on a path of growth and you are afraid of the consequences of proceeding (being visible, risking rejection etc), your inner trickster-mindfuck-manipulator can invent all kinds of symptoms and reasons for not proceeding.

In fact, it is possible that you are producing disease and psychopathology as a defensive strategy from stepping into your true power in life.

In fact, it’s not only possible, it’s likely*

And yet, I’m not saying that your sensitivity should be ignored. Your need for rest and silent time is real. And were you to ignore that, you will likely burn out or – if you aren’t already – be initiated into the ranks of the highly sensitive yourself.

One of your big challenges in life is learning to distinguish when your need to pull back from the world is wholesome and when it is a defense.

I’m not sure we ever fully learn to separate the two.

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Whatever the case, your sensitivity, were you to have a lot of it, is needed now more than ever.

For when navigated and harnessed as the superpower it is, you will find yourself able to see and feel the subtle phenomena stirring in the bio- and sociosphere that foreshadow the future.

You must learn that you have a place in the tribe, and then you must have the courage to claim it. No matter how lonely and displaced you feel, the human collective actually counts on you to do so.

And if you want to learn how to do that, you are in the right place.

I assure you that you have what it takes.

And I’m equally confident that we are qualified to help you.

Blessings on your journey my friendEivind RYIT Founder

* I started thinking I had cancer in 2018 as a defense against fully stepping into my purpose. It was pure nonsense, but had I insisted on my theory, I believe the body would’ve been capable of proving it correct eventually. I ignored this last line of defense from my inner victim with the help of my coach, kept moving on, and started seeing RYIT take off.

Eivind is a visionary writer, workshop leader, speaker, and founder of Reclaim your Inner Throne. He is committed to introducing a new paradigm of leadership, founded in principles of trust and surrender, and of helping people reclaim their Inner Thrones.